New Jersey's environmental health at a crossroads

RELEASE: Oct. 17, 2008 – Volume XL, No. 42

Over the last 60 years New Jersey voters have demonstrated their commitment to preserving open space, time after time, by consistently passing ballot measures.

But a new study by Environment America paints a stark contrast between New Jersey’s once-model program and its current condition. Formerly an open space leader, the state we’re in now finds its preservation program on unsure footing at a time when other states are promoting ballot measures to strengthen or expand their open space programs.

The report, “Preserving America’s Natural Heritage: Lessons from States’ Efforts to Fund Open Space Protection,” details how some states are bolstering their open space preservation efforts, and explains the wide range of challenges facing these programs around the nation. New Jersey is one of the report’s 15 case studies.

As noted in the report, New Jersey’s Garden State Preservation Trust (GSPT) is one of the most successful programs of its kind, preserving open spaces, farmland, historical sites, parks and recreational lands. The trust serves as a catalyst for hundreds of New Jersey towns and counties to pass their own open space funds, allowing them to match state monies to finance local projects.

Preserving America’s Natural Heritage highlights successful strategies for open space preservation throughout the country. Ironically, the Garden State Preservation Trust already embodies most of these “best practices.”

Governor Jon Corzine made commitments in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 to establish a stable, long-term funding source for future open space preservation. However, when the funding mechanism for the Garden State Preservation Trust ran its course in 2007, this didn’t happen. Voters were instead asked to approve a $200 million stopgap measure – which they did.

Much of that stopgap funding has already been allocated to a backlog of worthy preservation projects already in the pipeline. It was virtually spent before it was approved, and now the Garden State Preservation Trust is essentially empty. For the first time in decades, New Jersey is without a plan to fund open space.

And the timing could not be worse. Also for the first time in decades, it’s a buyer’s market. There is an unprecedented opportunity to preserve land at bargain prices.

That’s what states like Ohio, Colorado and Minnesota - to name just a few - will be able to do if their voters approve ballot measures to fund open space preservation. But without a steady source for conservation funding in New Jersey, we will continue another New Jersey stereotype – sprawl, traffic congestion, poor air and water quality, and degraded environmental health.

Let the Governor, your legislators and other elected officials know that you care about open space and want the Garden State Preservation Trust funded.

To read more about the Preserving America’s Natural Heritage report, go to www.environmentamerica.org. And I hope you’ll contact me at info@njconservation.org, or visit NJCF’s website at www.njconservation.org, for more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources.

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